The life of insects

Set in a crumbling Soviet Black Sea resort, Victor Pelevin’s The Life of Insects, with its motley cast of characters who exist simultaneously as human beings – racketeers, mystics, drug addicts and prostitutes – and as insects, extends the surreal comic range for which his first novel Omon Ra was acclaimed by critics. With consummate literary skill Pelevin creates a satirical bestiary which is as realistic as it is delirious – a bitter parable of contemporary Russia, with a disenchanted energy reminiscent of Gogol.